Written By the Victor
by Samji
Summary: *One Shot* A retelling of Taha Aki's story, as told by someone who watched it happen and had no reservations about what posterity would think of their actions.


History is written by the victor

-Unknown

"My father was Taha Aki's younger brother. There was no question in anyone's mind who would be the next Chief of the tribe," Meri began.

She quickly added, "Please don't think I'm saying this just to get on your good side, this is the way my father explained it to me." The men and women around the bonfire watched her curiously. This was a story they had heard many times before, but their stories were the legends of their people, she had heard the story from someone who had actually been there.

"Time passed and while there was some rivalry between them, the question of who would be chief when their father gave up his right was never questioned. Where Yahaleha was clever, Taha Aki was wise. Yahaleha was wealthy but Taha Aki was generous. My father fought and won battles but Taha Aki was able to form peace without conflict. Even if it wasn't tradition that the first born followed in his father's footsteps it had always been clear from the beginning that Taha Aki was destined for greatness.

"Their father grew old with their mother, as she was his true spirit wife."

Meri watched as all the people around the fire nodded in the understanding that eluded her. "You're going to have to explain what that means to me later." She watched as a couple of them shifted uncomfortably where they sat, as if she had never asked at all.

"When my grandfather became an old man," she continued, "Taha Aki became Chief. His people prospered under his leadership, there was peace. Not everyone was happy. There was a man named Utlapa who could not rest. He was a powerful warrior but he was a grasping man. No matter how much he had obtained, he still wanted more. He thought that the tribe was wasting their magic in these peaceful times. He knew the stories of the past where our power was used to fight wars, to drive others off the land, and he wanted that. He turned his eyes toward neighboring tribes and their land. He knew that we were better than the others, more powerful, and he felt that they should know this as well. He wanted them to serve him as slaves.

"When Taha Aki heard of Utlapa's plans, he was appalled. He ordered Utlapa to leave and never return. He even forbade him to use his spirit form. In essence he was exiled and left to die. Utlapa refused, but the other members of the tribe overpowered him and forced him to leave. Unfortunately, he did not go far. He waited in the forest for his chance to get revenge on Taha Aki, and to lead the tribe into the greatness that he saw in his mind.

"Time passed; I'm not sure how long. In these times of peace, it was rare that anyone went on spirit walks, but the bare minimum. Spirit walking isn't ever pleasant, but Taha Aki had his duty to protect his tribe. It was a sacrifice for him to do this. He went into the mountains to a sacred place to lay his body down and scout ahead for danger. This is when Utlapa chose to attack. Utlapa waited nearby until he thought that Taha Aki had gone far away and then he changed into his spirit form. Taha Aki knew immediately what he was planning but he was unable to reach his body in time to prevent Utlapa from taking it over. Before Taha Aki could return to the sacred place, Utlapa was gone, and not only that, but he had slit the throat on his own body, leaving Taha Aki with nowhere to go. Taha Aki suffered, more than Utlapa even. Not only was he exiled from his tribe and his family, but from life itself. Even death was beyond his reach; he was lost to the torturous nothingness of spirit walking forever.

"Utlapa returned to the village immediately in Taha Aki's body. No one was the wiser at first. He did his best to act in a way that he knew Taha Aki would act. My father, Yahaleha was suspicious of something, but had no idea what Utlapa's plans were. The concept of stealing another's body had not even crossed his mind.

"Weeks passed and Utlapa slowly made his character known. The first order he gave to the tribe in his new regime was that no one was the spirit walk again. He claimed that he had seen a vision of the future and that it was too dangerous. The tribe was shocked, but as Taha Aki had led the tribe in peace for all those years, they trusted him and obeyed unquestionably.

"In fear, Utlapa was forced to give up his plans of conquest. He knew that if he ever tried to go into his spirit form again, that Taha Aki would be waiting to take his body back. Instead he satisfied himself with ruling Taha Aki's tribe. The power quickly went to his head. Utlapa became less of a leader and more of a burden. He did not lead his tribe, he demanded of them. He mistreated Taha Aki's wife, and began to court other, younger women. When the tribe protested, he took them as wives. My father, Yahaleha tried to talk sense to him, but he would not listen. Everyone knew there was something wrong with their chief but everyone respected him enough not to question him too much.

"All the while the true chief, Taha Aki, was in exile, watching all of this happen around him. It was torture. Being without one's body is horrifying, and without any escape, Taha Aki was in agony. He watched helplessly as Utlapa hurt those he loved and began to burn with anger. He tried everything he could to get their attention. The wind blew in wild gusts, but Utlapa told the tribe that it was only proof that his bad visions were true. The tribe trusted their chief, absolutely.

"His final plan was to assassinate Utlapa. If he was unable to take his body back, the least he could for his tribe was to protect them from this unjust fate. Taha Aki found a lone wolf in the forest and commanded him to kill Utlapa. The wolf ran into the village and went straight for Utlapa, but the warriors were loyal to their chief and protected him with their life. One of the young warriors was hurt so badly that he eventually died and when this happened, Taha Aki called the wolf off and retreated into the woods in defeat. The wolf followed.

Taha Aki's spirit wandered through the forest in anguish for a very long time. The wolf never left his side. In time Taha Aki became angry and bitter. The slow torture began to eat into his mind. He became jealous of even the wolf that followed him. It may have been only an animal, but at least he had a body, a home. Then an idea came to him, he ordered the wolf to submit his body unto him, and so it was done. Taha Aki had a body again, the body of a wolf. Now without fear of hurting an innocent man, Taha Aki walked into the village.

"When the tribesmen saw the wolf again, they fled in fear. The warriors stayed behind to fight it, but stopped when they realized that the wolf was no ordinary wolf. They took it as an omen when the wolf began to howl and yelp in strange but familiar ways. Soon my father realized that the wolf was singing the songs of their people. They knew that a spirit must be controlling the creature. They wanted to go into their spirit forms to investigate, but they did not want to disobey their chief. My father was loyal to his brother, and despite his recent actions, still had respect for him. They argued for a very long time until an older warrior named Yut insisted on leaving his body behind and have his spirit talk to this wolf. The other warriors circled around his body to protect him.

"As Yut left his body a change came over the wolf. Instead of yelping and crying out in the songs of their people, it just sat still on the ground and watched the warriors. Utlapa heard the hush come over the warriors and thought that they had killed the wolf. When he saw the wolf sitting still there, he knew that something was wrong. He saw the warriors circling around something and when he came upon the still body of Yut he knew that they had disobeyed his orders. 'Traitor,' he called out and came at Yut with a knife. The warriors were confused. Taha Aki had never acted this way in the past, but as chief, he had every right to punish Yut, for he had given him a direct order and he had disobeyed knowingly. The warriors stood back and watched as when Yut returned to his body, their chief slit his throat before he had a chance to tell them what he had seen.

"The warriors stood in shocked silence as Yut bled out before them. The wind picked up and whipped around them as they stood there and suddenly the silence was broken by a deep, menacing growl. They turned to see the wolf rise to its feat again, but then it began to convulse and writhe and shift its shape. The warriors protectively circled around Utlapa to protect him from the monster before them. Then, the wolf shifted into its final form, a man. The man before them looked nothing like the body of their chief Taha Aki but my father recognized his brother instantly from the many times that they had gone on spirit journeys together and called out to the others. The warriors in the tribe looked back and forth between the two men, unsure of what to think.

"Taha Aki did not say a word. He let out a primal yell and flew at Utlapa. The warriors stepped out of the way, not knowing what to do. Utlapa turned to run, and that is when the warriors knew that the man in their chief's body was not Taha Aki. Utlapa did not get far before Taha Aki's strong new body caught up to him and crushed the life out of Utlapa's body with his supernatural strength. The tribe rejoiced. They were happy to have their chief back.

"Immediately Taha Aki went to set things right with his tribe. He sent the young wives back to their families and he repaired strained relations with the neighboring tribes. He did everything he could to make things back to normal, but it was obvious that there was a change in him. The time that he had spent alone, without a body, had changed him. They made him stronger but sharper. He was not wise, he was clever. He was not brave, he was fearless. People called him Taha Aki the Great Wolf and Taha Aki the Spirit Man.

"While my father and Taha Aki had been close friends before, this did not continue after he returned. Taha Aki held my father partially responsible and was bitter that my father had ever been friends with Utlapa. Most grievous of all, Taha Aki kept in place the ban on spirit walking, saying that it was too dangerous now that the idea for stealing a life was there.

"My father saw through the lie. He knew that the ban was there because of fear. Taha Aki was afraid to spirit walk after all that he had suffered through. Taha Aki wanted to protect his people from the same fate, which while noble, condemned them all to die. You see, when one can not spirit walk any more, they age. They grow old, they grow weak, and then they die. After seeing some of the tribe's most honored warriors grow sick and die, my father, Yahaleha, begged Taha Aki to reconsider, but Taha Aki refused to back down."

Meri looked around the bonfire and grew anxious under the angry gazes of some of the men sitting there. "Please don't look at me like that," she pleaded. "As I said, I am only repeating the story that was told to me by my father."

She took a deep breath and continued again. "My father started to spirit walk in secret, determined not to leave the tribe vulnerable to attack, but Taha Aki soon caught on and they argued about it. Taha Aki said that no one in the tribe would ever be allowed to spirit walk ever again. It was then that Yahaleha knew it was time to leave his tribe. If Taha Aki would not see reason, then he would leave. He expected to be followed, to start a new town somewhere else but no one followed. Not even his wife.

"He left alone.

"My father tried to keep in contact with his family and his brother. While his brother did not spirit walk anymore he found that when his brother was in his wolf form they could still talk to each other. They could not hear every thought as they had before, because their bonds were now broken to each other, but they could still talk. They both begged each other to reconsider, but both of them were too proud to back down. Taha Aki ruled his tribe for many, many years. As he fathered sons, he discovered that many of them also became wolf-men as they grew older, but unlike the group of equals that the tribe had been before, the younger wolf-men were under the control of Taha Aki completely. They only had as much free will as Taha Aki allowed them. My father was only able to speak to them through Taha Aki.

"The entire tribe was growing older, but Taha Aki and his children remained youthful. It made Yahaleha uneasy."

Meri was growing uneasy herself. She couldn't help but notice the defensive postures of the men and women around the circle. She couldn't blame them for reacting that way though. Who would ever want to hear such terrible things about their ancestors?

"The last Yahaleha heard of the tribe was many, many years ago. Taha Aki had found his one spirit wife and had decided to settle down and grow old with her. He had many sons with her and placed Taha Wi to take his place when it came his time to leave his tribe for the next world. Then one day my father went into his spirit form and there was nobody to talk to. He figured that it was nothing more than bad timing and thought nothing of it, but then months went by, and the months turned to years and still he was unable to speak with anyone from his tribe. The silence remained with him until the day that he died."

Meri looked around the circle as she finished her story. The others seemed to be waiting for her to continue, but she had no answers for them.

"He never understood why the communication had stopped so suddenly. All of the communication in the past was through Taha Aki, but he did have some relationship with Taha Wi, and assumed that when his brother passed the torch—so to speak—that he would be able to communicate with him as well."

"Taha Wi never took over the pack," Sam explained. "Both Taha Aki and Taha Wi died with the rest of their brothers a very long time ago."

This was completely unexpected. "How is that possible?" Meri asked in surprise. She could only think of one thing that could kill a shapeshifter, and to have killed so many of them…. Suddenly, Meri was unsure of whether she wanted to hear the answer.

"Let me tell you the tale," offered Old Quil. "Perhaps you will understand us better, and learn more about who we have become."

~*Author's note*~

To learn more about Meri, please check out my other (excessively long) story, Worth the Wait.


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